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This is Exodus week 5, day 5, last day of this week, looking at Exodus chapter
25 today. And in this chapter we turn from the law to the tabernacle. In this
chapter Moses begins to build a tabernacle, a place where they could experience
the fact that God's presence dwelt among them.

Verse 8 and 9, God says, "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will
dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the
pattern I will show you. " When it comes to this tabernacle, the tabernacle was
a tent that would be built where they would experience the place of God's
presence.

It's very important we understand two things when we begin to look at this
tabernacle. Number one, you are now the tabernacle of God as a follower of
Christ. You are now the temple of God as a follower of Christ.

You are now the dwelling place of God's Spirit as a follower of Christ. So all
that is said here about a tabernacle, a place where God's dwelling was going to
be recognized among the people, it's all looking forward to what God's going to
do in you. So there's a lot of autobiography of your life as God talks about the
tabernacle.

Many people read this and just sort of skip over it very quickly because they
don't realize this is about me and what God wants to do in my life. So recognize
number one, you are the tabernacle now, the temple of God. But then number two,
as we begin, recognize this.

The building of this tabernacle began with an offering. That's how it started.
Chapter 25, verses 1 and 2, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell the Israelites to
bring me an offering.

You are to receive the offering from me, from each man whose heart prompts him
to give. '" A willing offering that was given. Listen to this.

Jesus gave an offering so that they could build a place where the presence of
God would dwell among them. Jesus gave himself as an offering so that he could
make of you a place where the presence of God dwells. They gave an offering so
they could build a tabernacle.

Jesus gave himself as an offering so that he could make of you a temple. Now as
we read through this chapter, it's all about how to build and what to build. For
instance, how to make the Ark of the Covenant, that cabinet where they would put
the Ten Commandments and they would recognize that God's presence was with them
in a special way in that place.

Verses 10 and 11, "Have them make a chest of acacia wood, two and a half cubits
long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Or lay it with pure
gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. " You see how to
build the Ark, also following how to build the table, how to build the
lampstand.

We're going to come back to some of these descriptions as we go through these
chapters because God is very detailed about this. But here, I want to start in a
broader way about the meaning of the tabernacle and one particular piece of
furniture in that tabernacle. When it comes to the tabernacle of God, there's
three things you need to know.

Number one, Moses built a tabernacle for the people of God. That's what we see
happening here. And the Bible says it's supposed to be built exactly according
to the pattern that God showed him.

So God says, "Here's how it looks," and Moses made it because it represented who
God was among the people. Number two, you need to realize that David built a
temple for the people of God. Once they finally came into the promised land,
once they finally had taken most of the promised land, David as king decided
it's time for God to no longer dwell in a tent.

"I dwell in a nice house. I've got to build a house for God. " So he built a
temple, and that temple is what grew out of the tabernacle.

The temple represented the same things. It had the same dimensions, had the same
kind of gold, but it was made of a solid structure, not as a tent. And number
three, as I said earlier, third thing you have to realize is Jesus made a
tabernacle, a temple, of the people of God.

Moses built a tabernacle for the people of God. David built a temple for the
people of God, but Jesus made a tabernacle, a temple, of the people of God. When
you have a hold of that, you get a sense of what God's doing through these
chapters as we read about them.

So as I said, I want you to notice with me one particular piece of furniture
that was built. It's often ignored. In verses 12 to 15, "Cast four gold rings
for it, for this box, this cabinet that would become the ark, and then fasten
them to its four feet with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.

Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into
the rings on the side of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the
rings of this ark.

They are not to be removed. " I want to focus on those poles. Why did God have
poles put into this cabinet, this ark?

Because this cabinet, this ark, represented the presence of God, and the people
could not touch the ark. It was holy. So to touch it would mean death.

To me, these poles are some of the most significant pieces of furniture in the
tabernacle because they express the relationship with God that the people of
Israel had. If you read through the history of the people of God of Israel, you
see that indeed there were times when people touched that ark and when they did,
they died. So what did the poles represent?

They represented three things. Number one, God is holy and I am not. I cannot
touch that ark because I am not holy.

I cannot come in direct contact with the holiness of God. So there are tent
walls between me and the holiness of God. There's temple walls between me and
the holiness of God.

There's a priest between me and the holiness of God. God is holy and I am not.
These poles represented a second thing.

God is with me, yet I am separate from him. The people could go to worship God
at the tabernacle, at the temple, but they had to be in the courts outside of
the temple. They couldn't go into the temple.

Even the priests who could go into the temple couldn't go into the holy of
holies in the temple. Even the high priest who could go into the holy holies
once a year to make sacrifice for the people could only do so once a year after
he made extensive sacrifices for himself. God is with me, yet I am separated
from him.

And these poles represented a third thing. God is powerful and so I live in fear
of him. The people of Israel knew that God loved them because he expressed it
again and again.

Yet they lived in a relationship of fear. A God who was terrible on the
mountain, a God who was holy in the tabernacle. Because of what Jesus has done
for us, all of that has changed.

Because of what Jesus has done for you, that relationship with him has entirely
changed. Once you understand that, you appreciate your relationship with him
even more, but you're also encouraged to live that relationship with him even
more. Not to live in the old way, the old covenant, but to live out the new way,
the new promise.

Under the old covenant, God is holy and I am not. By the new promise of Jesus,
because of what Jesus did, I have been made holy. You have been made holy.

You can come into the presence of God. Again and again in the New Testament,
we're encouraged to come into the very presence of God. Why?

Because you've been made holy. Not because of what you've done, but because of
what Jesus did and he gave, he gifted, he graced his holiness to you. You're not
perfect.

You still sin, but those sins have been forgiven, they've been covered. You've
been made holy by what Jesus did. That's how different your relationship is now
with him.

Because of what Jesus did, instead of being separated from him by a temple, you
are now the temple of God's spirit. He is with you wherever you go. I am now the
temple of the spirit.

That is a radical change. We'll focus on that even more this next week, how
radical a change that is. Now you are the temple of God's spirit.

Because of what Jesus did, I've been made holy. Because of what Jesus did, I'm
now the temple of God's spirit. Because of what Jesus did, they lived in fear of
him.

But because of what Jesus did, as we're told in 1 John, there is no fear in
love. I'm not living in fear of him. There is no fear in love because fear
involves punishment.

Of course they were afraid of him. If they did the wrong thing, stepped the
wrong way, touched the wrong thing, it was death. I'd be afraid of that too.

I'd stay as far away from that as I could. That's exactly what they did
sometimes. But our relationship with God now is not a relationship of fear.

He's invited us into a relationship of love, a giving God who's giving us love
in Jesus Christ. I know some of us still live in a relationship of fear with
God. We haven't seen it yet.

We haven't experienced it yet. But because of what Jesus did, you don't have to
fear punishment any longer. You've already passed out of judgment into life.

You don't have to fear not being with God in heaven for eternity. You don't have
to fear punishment in this world. Oh, God disciplines us sometimes, like a
loving father disciplines his children, but he doesn't punish us and throw us
out of the family.

You're in. You're in the family of God because of God's love for you. There is
no fear in love.

Fear involves punishment. And instead of that, you have the love of God in your
life because of what Jesus did. Let's pray together.

Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross, for giving your life so that I have
been made holy as I've trusted in you, so that I'm now a temple of your spirit
because I've trusted in you, so that I now no longer need to fear because I've
trusted in you. Jesus, I forget sometimes just going through my routine everyday
life. So remind me today, through these verses even today, throughout the day,
of what a radical difference you've made.

Thank you, Jesus, for loving me. In your name, I pray, amen. Next week, we're
going to continue to look together at our surprising daily experience of the
holiness of God.